Digital Trends: Remotely launch treats and spy on your pets with the Furbo treat-dispensing camera

What’s the worst part about going to work each day? If you instantly thought about how much of a drag it is to leave your dog at home by itself, then the Furbo — Indiegogo’s latest success story — will be right up your alley. Launched by the Seattle-based company Tomofun, Furbo is a Jack-of-all-trades pup cam that gives users the ability to launch treats and remotely talk to their dogs while keeping an eye on them throughout the day. It’s essentially a window into the user’s home or apartment that costs considerably less than signing a dog up for daycare each day, even if it may makes users look a tad silly as they talk sweet nothings to their canine best friend through a smartphone.

Though not the first treat dispenser to hit the market, Furbo is packed to the gills with innovative features that could put it ahead of its competition — assuming the device is as reliable as the Indiegogo page lets on. For starters, Furbo packs a high-quality camera which gives users the ability to tune into a live HD feed of what’s going on at home and record any of the videos they are watching.

Additionally, Furbo boasts a two-way speaker, meaning not only do owners have the option of listening in on their pup but they get to communicate directly to Rex or Fido as well. The camera also features a 4x zoom as well as night vision, so owners can keep tabs on their canine companions even when it’s dark.

Furbo also lets users have a little fun with their dog while allowing them the opportunity for valuable training time, even while out of the house. A speaker on the Furbo alerts users when their dog begins barking, thus giving the owner the ability to talk directly to their pup, presumably to comfort young Fido. If a simple “who’s a good boy?” doesn’t work, the device houses an innovative “Treat Popper” which — as the name suggests — pops treats to (im)patiently waiting dogs. Concerning its pop-ability, Furbo doesn’t mess around; the device absolutely launches the treat at the dog, turning the awarding of a simple treat into a full-out game.

Contrary to Furbo’s Indiegogo campaign page which calls it the “world’s first treat-dispensing dog camera,” other such products do exist. Take the Petzi Treat Cam, for instance. Launched last year to middling reviews, Petzi boasts many of the features Furbo advertises but misses out on a few crucial traits: live video feeds and the ability to directly communicate with your pet. Petzi does take photos and allows for the distribution of treats but Furbo’s ability to give owners a live look into what their dog is doing, as well as its ability to pipe real-time audio to their pet, gives it a bit more allure than the competition. Moreover, at $99 the Furbo is roughly $70 cheaper than Petzi — for now, at least — making it even more appealing.

The Furbo treat-dispensing dog cam is available via Tomofun’s Indiegogo campaign for the next month and has already raised just over $40,000 of its $50,000 flexible goal as of this writing.